Running a 5e game without parsed content

[GunnarGreybeard]

Just curious if anyone out there is running a 5e game without fully parsed or even partially parsed content and how smooth has it gone?

I'm itching to try my hand at GM'ing at least a couple one shots and eventually a full blown campaign but due to real life and work time commitments and bungling my way through the parsing process (been playing with parser and the MM just to get a feel for the steps required to get this done) and I doubt I'll get to a workable stage anytime soon.

I know I can run without any parsed content but would rather not make things harder on myself than they will already be. That and my OCD wants ALL the content in FG.

The last time I played any D&D was probably the early 80's other than a few sessions as player and I haven't really run anything in FG for about 2 years now so saying I'm pretty "rusty" would be an understatement.

[GunnarGreybeard]

I guess to help me prioritize where to start and maybe reduce my potential workload, what things would you concentrate of getting into FG in order to run a game of 5e if you couldn't get it all in there?

[Kelendros78]

At minimum the PHB its not that bad to parse it took me about a week but that was 4 hours a night minumum. Next I would do the Monster Manual that took me 4 days but I had help. 2 of us working through google doc's made it go much quicker...

[damned]

use Valeros Basic Parse tool - gives you at least 150 monsters and 200 spells - in 5 minutes flat.
have your players get their own PHB and they can do all their own character sheet entry.
thats the minimum work you need to do to use FG as the DM.

[ddavison]

My recommendation would be to build out some monsters for use in a random encounter table, maybe a few set encounters and enough for a single session. In between each session, just add the next dozen monsters you need and you should get there slowly over time.

[Draca]

Of course you don't really need anything but a few scraps of paper and your own books , but man is it nice to have all players and monster manual parsed , such a time saver.

in order of importance i would say.

Monster manual then Players handbook and then DMG.

After that its nothing but your modules to run.

[GunnarGreybeard]

use Valeros Basic Parse tool - gives you at least 150 monsters and 200 spells - in 5 minutes flat.
have your players get their own PHB and they can do all their own character sheet entry.
thats the minimum work you need to do to use FG as the DM.

Thanks Damned, had forgotten about the Basic Parse tool. No need to do the books right off since with the basic information added I could then work on the books as I go along and enable those library mods once completed enough for my needs.

[GunnarGreybeard]

My recommendation would be to build out some monsters for use in a random encounter table, maybe a few set encounters and enough for a single session. In between each session, just add the next dozen monsters you need and you should get there slowly over time.

Yeah, since it'll be a homebrew, well Harn actually, I'm using Par5e to build my monster library manually and that seems to be going well, slow, but well. Hardest part is converting the stats and stuff from Harn to D&D5e, still working out a good conversion formula.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Of course you don't really need anything but a few scraps of paper and your own books , but man is it nice to have all players and monster manual parsed , such a time saver.

Yeah, my thoughts exactly.

I think the best option for me right now is to parse the Basic Rules per Damned's recommendation and then build the other modules as I go along and have time.

[GunnarGreybeard]

At minimum the PHB its not that bad to parse it took me about a week but that was 4 hours a night minumum. Next I would do the Monster Manual that took me 4 days but I had help. 2 of us working through google doc's made it go much quicker...

Just curious how clean of a scan you had to use? Mine seems pretty good but I find myself having to manually edit a lot of stuff. I think some of the images are interfering with the nearby text and blocking it out since testing shows I can't copy a few words near the top of the monster stat block (the text right underneath some monster images) in the monster manual.